If buying a hi-fi product from an internet retailer is like an arranged marriage, a hi-fi show is like speed dating. Not everyone, I realize, approaches hi-fi shows (or speed dating, for that matter) the same way, and anyway, the analogy between hi-fi and dating is far from perfect. Speed dating is how this year's AXPONA, America's biggest hi-fi show, held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center (above) near Chicago in April, often felt to me as I moved from room to room. Every new system I heard had the potential to become a long-term relationship…
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Gabriel Fauré: La Bonne Chanson, L'horizon chimérique
Stéphane Degout, Alain Planès
Harmonia Mundi HMM 902382, CD (reviewed as 24/96). 2024.
Alban Moraud, prod.; Alban Moraud Audio, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Stéphane Degout, Alain Planès
Harmonia Mundi HMM 902382, CD (reviewed as 24/96). 2024.
Alban Moraud, prod.; Alban Moraud Audio, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
During the current Fauré Centennial, recordings of the composer's music are appearing at a steady pace. So far, vocal music has gotten short shrift, adding importance to this new Harmonia Mundi recital, in which baritone Stéphane Degout, one of today's foremost proponents of French mélodie, adds his mellifluous voice to Alain Planès's period-authentic…
Contrast this view, taken by Peter McGrath as we headed to dinner at show's end, with that of the mobbed staircase at the opening bell. Only the person visible on the ground level carrying two boxes gives indication of the bustle of activity throughout the MOC as exhibitors, who collectively displayed 95% of all high-end brands worldwide, were busy packing, sorting, and shipping enough valuable gear to leave many a trust-fund manager and venture capitalist in tears.
It was another scene in the hallways of the Atriums, where an earlier attempt to connect with McGrath for dinner ran…
I first met electronics engineer John Dawson in 1979, at a British audio show. The company he'd co-founded, A&R Cambridge, had just launched the A60, a slim, elegant-looking, 40Wpc integrated amplifier costing only £99 (then equivalent to $217).
By the time I reviewed the Mk.2 version, in the October 1984 issue of Hi-Fi News & Record Review, the A60's price had risen to £199 ($248), the company was now called Arcam, and more than 22,000 A60s had been sold, making it one of the best-selling amplifiers in England. While preparing that review I had visited Arcam's factory, near the…
Sidebar 3: Measurements, from July 2018 (Vol.41 No.7)
When Jason Victor Serinus reviewed LG's MQA-capable V30 smartphone in our May issue, he was mightily impressed. "LG's implementation of its Hi-Fi Quad DAC is a work of genius," he wrote, concluding that "If ever there were a device that could bring the experience of high-end sound to millions of music lovers, the hi-rez V30 with MQA is it. It's more than a game-changer." JVS added that the V30's combination of audiophile sound quality and smartphone portability "may prove unbeatable." However, our publishing schedule didn't include…
The Nucleus also has an internal bay for a 2.5" drive, either HDD or SSD, but this drive can't be more than 7mm in height. The Nucleus+ is powered by a wall wart—a linear power supply should be available later this year—and is turned on or off with a rear-panel pushbutton. With its minimal system overhead, it boots up incredibly quickly. One of Roon's goals for the Nucleus was that it dissipate heat only passively, without a cooling fan, and even after prolonged use the prominent heatsink fins on the top and sides of its dark gray case barely got warm. I measured the top panel's temperature…
Every product listed here has been reviewed in Stereophile. Everything on the list, regardless of rating, is genuinely recommendable.
Within each category, products are listed by class; within each class, they're in alphabetical order, followed by their price, a review synopsis, and a note indicating the issues in which the review, and any subsequent follow-up reports, appeared. "Vol.45 No.6" indicates our June 2022 issue, for example. "WWW" means the review is also posted online.
Stereophile's Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products available in the US…
The Akira's bass didn't bloom to quite the extent it had with the Wilson Alexia 2s, but was still weighty enough to satisfy. In the October issue, Sasha Matson raved about Ry Cooder's new album, The Prodigal Son (CD, Fantasy FAN00236). After reading that review, I asked Amazon Prime to overnight the CD to me. Robert Francis's bass in Albert Reed's "You Must Unload" provided a firm underpinning with the Tidals. More significant, the Akiras laid bare the atmospheric looped accompaniment in "Nobody's Fault But Mine," contrasting it with the upfront-but-never-too-much balance of Cooder's…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Our review samples of Doshi Audio's Monoblock V3.0 amplifier were well traveled, having been shown at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver in 2017, and at AXPONA and Munich High End in 2018, before making their way to Washington and Jason Victor Serinus. Unfortunately, they then didn't survive their transcontinental trip from Jason's place to mine at the hands of UPS. Although the boxes seemed undamaged, they must have been dropped at some point: neither amp worked. Fortunately, Nick Doshi was able to drive up from Virginia to Brooklyn at short notice to repair…
Moving back in time from the Brahms, I cued up a performance of Beethoven's Fifth "Emperor" Concerto, with Kristian Bezuidenhout accompanied by the Freiburger Barockorchester conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado (24/96 FLAC, Qobuz/Harmonia Mundi). Again the soundstage lacked depth. However, the percussive, less sustained, rather "clattery" tone of the forte piano featured on this recording, compared with the modern instrument on the Brahms recording, was laid bare by the Synchrony T600s. Piano is revealing of midrange coloration; the PSBs reproduced the character of Vogt's and Bezuidenhout's…